About Us

Welcome to the Healing with Horse Collective!

As facilitators teaming with horses in human learning, personal and spiritual enrichment, therapy, and wellness, we have chosen a passion over a well-established career path.
If you are new to this field, the path you may find yourself on is not familiar in our more mainstream culture. We at the Collective applaud you for answering a calling. Your decision to start your journey--a journey of both heart and mind--is an answer to your soul and to the World.
Even so, sometimes you may find that you:

Are a bit confused about how to move forward

Feel isolated by the multifaceted skill-sets you must develop and how different they may be from other vocational paths

Perhaps a bit disheartened or overwhelmed, or

Desire to find your "herd" among a number of professional organizations and certifications, yet unsure which of these would best suit you, your perspectives, your skills and your life situation, then you have found the right place.

And if you would like to:

Expand your circles of colleagues beyond a particular model you have learned

Innovate beyond your initial learning and would like to share your innovations and learn about others

Collaborate with others who bring different skills to the table, or

Explore questions and issues that your practice has raised

then the Healing with Horse Collective (the Collective) may be the organization for you.
Founded by Dr. Jenn Oikle on a vision of supporting and uplifting equine-assisted facilitators so they could in turn expand their practices and serve more people, the Healing with Horse Collective is an international professional training, education, and support organization for those who incorporate horses in experiential learning and/or therapeutic activities. The Collective is an umbrella that brings together professionals from different credentialing organizations using various business models to share best practices, facilitation skills, innovations, business development, and to provide community.
We offer an annual spring Tele Summit of educational audio sessions from leaders of the field, followed by a highly experiential annual Symposium in late spring/early summer. Each year's exact dates are announced through the newsletter, FB page, and on this site. The Collective, now led by Diedre West, is a global gathering of professionals from all models and trainings, teaming with horses to serve humans in various ways, as well as aspirants and supporters of this work with horses.
If you have any questions, Please do not hesitate to contact us.

About Diedre West

Diedre Susana West, owner of the Healing with Horse Collective (www.healingwithhorse.org) and Caballo Andante Equine Services is a lifelong horsewoman who began training Arabian horses when she was 13. She had a decade-long career as a college English professor specializing in environmental literature, feminism, and comparative mythology, before developing an acclaimed equine program at a residential therapy facility for young women. Utilizing her training in her academic specialties and studies in Jungian, constellations, gestalt, somatic and other therapies, Diedre and the Caballo Andante herd have honed experiential learning processes that:

identify the central storylines we are all working through,

make meaning from the deeply entrenched inner paths and pressures these central storylines, or myths, place on our lives,

step into profound spiritual awakening or understanding, even when our life track brings us situations cannot control.

Caballo Andante has worked with children, teens, and college-aged adults including those considered to be at-risk, adults in all walks of life, college students, international corporate leaders, people with autism, and military veterans for over 15 years.
Diedre also loves mountains, where she trail rides, hikes with her dogs, mountain bikes, backpacks, rock climbs, and tele-mark skis both in the backcountry and at resorts. Or she may be found just sitting on her deck drinking good coffee with an equally good book, looking up occasionally at the herd of horses running across a meadow backed by mountains.
Please check out the Healing with Horse Collective, email healingwithhorse @gmail.com, or call 303-880-7240.